Simply Hired UK Blog

Volunteer to Land a Job

Guest post by Jessica Pierce

Let me ask, are you volunteering? If not, why? Really consider those questions… I run a nonprofit programme dedicated to unemployed professionals that is completely run by over 55 volunteers, and almost all of them are professionals that have been in career transition. I am an advocate for volunteering and providing service to others, even in a time of great need such as career transition.

There are multiple reasons in which people should volunteer, especially while they are in transition, but let me focus on three…

1. NETWORKING!!! This is the epitome of networking. You are meeting people who share your same heart and desire to help, so you have an instant connection. It will be easy to make conversation and find more connections. This is one place in which you can meet like-minded people and network at the same time. When you are serving other people first, fulfil your commitments and do a great job, then they will be the first to recommend you and introduce you to others to assist in your job search.

2. CONFIDENCE!!! Many folks in career transition feel as if they have lost a sense of themselves, their giftedness and their value. I’ve heard from many candidates that volunteering has been significant in building their self confidence to move forward. You will utilise your skills and intelligence that are truly valued. If you seek out a volunteer position that is a good match for you and is appreciated by those in which you are serving, then it can truly build your self-confidence. One volunteer that I’ve worked with closely told me that when I thanked her for her work, talent and expertise that it actually made her cry. It was the first time in years (including when she was a corporate executive) that she actually felt valued.

3. EXPERIENCE!!! So many people these days are looking to completely change careers. One of the issues with completely changing careers is that you don’t have experience in that area. Volunteering for a company of interest or a similar nonprofit can give you that experience. You can actually include it right at the top of your resume under the experience section. Healthcare is an industry that requires training and experience. You can get the experience (and make great networking contacts within a company) just by volunteering a couple hours a week.

Though volunteering to help others in need while you are in great need yourself might seem to be a stretch, I promise you that it is much more worthwhile at least one day a week than sitting at home wondering how to find your next contact.

Praying for your landing into the career of your dreams!!!

Jessica Pierce is Career Transition Speaker, Trainer and Consultant. She is also the Executive Director of Career Connectors, a community program connecting real people with real careers who have helped over 4000 job seekers in the last 2 years. 

 

Video CV Advice

Guest Post by Hannah Lawrence, Marketing & PR at Inspiring Interns

Using a video CV to impress a potential employer is a fairly new phenomenon, but if done well it can be a valuable tool in your internship and graduate job hunt. A video CV gives you the chance to let someone see your personality and enthusiasm, which is often hard to illustrate through a paper application.

So what should you include in your video CV? You need to keep the content short and sweet, much like an elevator pitch. You only have their attention for about 30 seconds so make it count; focus on what is most relevant and individual about you. To avoid too many 'ums' and 'aahs' and losing focus in your video you should write down a quick list of what you want to say and memorise it. Avoid just reciting your CV and sounding like a scripted robot. Try to stand out from the crowd by avoiding empty phrases like ‘motivated and team player’, as this does not tell the employer anything about you. Instead when you talk about a skill make sure you back it up with an example of when you have put this skill into practice: e.g. “In my part-time job I showed initiative when developing a process to streamline the customer ordering process, which improved the restaurant’s overall efficiency.” However, don’t list all of your skills; think quality over quantity. Focus on your most relevant achievements and explain what would make you an asset to a company. Where possible, name drop companies you have worked for and anything positive they have had to say about you.

It is important not to pigeon hole yourself at this stage and keep your video CV fairly open in terms of sectors you might like to work in. You should include the key skills that you want to use instead of narrowing yourself down into very specific sectors, such as ‘political risk consultancy’ or ‘events management for charities that work with young people’. At this stage your video CV is more of an interactive cover letter that generically introduces you and your skills and interests. You can be more specific when you get an interview.

A lot of what you communicate is via your body language. It’s through the way you sit, the tone of your voice and involuntary messages you send out. To come across confident in your video make sure you look directly at the camera while speaking as if maintaining eye contact; this will engage anyone viewing your video. Try not to cross your arms or legs as this creates a wall between you and the person watching your video and you will come across as defensive. Make sure you maintain a straight posture throughout your video, but keep your shoulders relaxed to show a relaxed confidence. Also, try to avoid touching your face and fidgeting as this makes you appear nervous.

A video CV is a great way to get your personality across and stand out from the crowd when trying to impress potential employers. Therefore, try to enjoy recording it and make sure you prepare for it as if it were an interview; a video CV can often act as one.

Inspiring Interns actively match graduates and employers, eager to create opportunities for interns to earn permanent employment. The London-based intern recruitment agency has placed over 1000 interns at SMEs since they were established in January 09, using innovative matching techniques such as video CVs to secure their position as market leaders in the internship field. It is this matching process that has seen over 600 of their placements become permanent jobs.

8 Great Ways to Stay Afloat While Between Jobs

Guest post by Natalie Grigson and Melissa Reese of the MangoMoney blog.

"…I am not unemployed, I'm on sabbatical." 
"Hey, don't get religious on me, okay?"

So say Ross and Joey in one of my favourite episodes of Friends. I'm not going to lie, that episode was how I actually learned what the word "sabbatical" means. It's not that I am sheltered, uneducated, or not a dictionary-reading, word fanatic (because I am), it's just that words like "sabbatical" weren't used so often when that episode first aired.

This was in 1998, and oh what a difference thirteen years can make. Now it seems like everywhere I turn, someone is talking about how they are going through a "developmental retreat," or they are "temporarily unemployed," or, yes, "on sabbatical." Of course these all are pretty little euphemisms for one thing: being in between jobs.

Whether you've recently been laid off or you've been "on sabbatical" for several weeks or even months, being in between jobs is nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, everyone is doing it, right? And with these eight simple time and money management tips, being in between jobs is nothing to be afraid of either. In fact, it might even be a good thing.

Do you have any tips for how to spend time and money in between jobs? Comment below!

Sources: WiseBread.com, Friends-tv.org, CookingOnABudget.com, Mango.com/blog, BudgetMover.org, Cliffnotes.com, FastCompany.com, SBA.gov, www.usa-healthinsurance.com

 

Do you have any tips for how to spend time and money in between jobs? Comment below!

 

Natalie Grigson and Melissa Reese are bloggers for the MangoMoney blog, the official community for Mango Financial. MangoMoney is committed to educating and entertaining consumers on everything from living frugally to current economic events. Mango Financial, Inc. is an innovative consumer financial services company that seeks to empower underserved customers in the U.S. to achieve their financial goals. Mango offers services and products like their reloadable, prepaid card, both in retail and online at www.MangoMoney.com. 

Top Tips For Becoming An Entrepreneur

Guest Post written by Simon Dolan, founder and owner of SJD Accountancy, Contract Umbrella and Easy Accountant

I was thrown out of school at 16 with virtually no qualifications, limited prospects and fewer ideas. Selling cheese and eggs on a market stool for a period of time taught me the gift-of-the-gab, commitment to hard graft and strong arithmetic. I capitalised on my penchant for numbers and started a simple business handling accounts and tax returns for small, local businesses. One initial investment of £10 for an advertisement of my services and 17 years later, at the age of 41, I now own a number of companies which are making over £6 million a year in net profit and spearhead a business empire spanning financial services, aviation, publishing and motor racing. I’ve just published an autobiographical guide called How To Make Millions Without A Degree, and hope to impart to others the techniques and ideas necessary in turning any idea into a great business:

• Develop an ability in sales – everything in business, and indeed life, comes from sales. In an interview, you have to sell yourself, and furthermore, the interviewer also has to sell the business to you. Sales enhances your numeracy and broadens your confidence…

• Avoid the big wide gate, look for the chink. Avoid overly saturated markets and concentrate on the niche and unoriginal.

• Your business plan – this should be five words long: “Get and keep more customers!”. Without customers you haven’t got a business, and by customers, I mean people who spend money.

• Know when to quit – if you’ve tried everything and it’s not getting any better, cut your losses and move on.

• Self-belief is an entrepreneur’s most precious commodity. 

• Start engineering your business so that it can be replicated…and run by individuals who follow the system

• Don’t spend money on advertising. All you need to do is create a web page.

• By learning some techniques and by practicing and improving over time, you can be 100 per cent, 200 per cent or even 300 per cent better than you are now.

• Never, ever spend a penny more than you need to. And you don’t need a PA, receptionist, junior, nice furniture, an office, a company car or a photocopier – get the picture?

• Realise that you have to sell. Yes, you will have to pick up the phone and ask for business, If you can’t do this, don’t start a business.

• Think about how you can delegate responsibility and duplicate yourself. If you are only selling your time and no one else’s there is a real and quick limit to how much you can earn (you need to sleep sometime).

• Realise that the only purpose your business has is to make money. Save the World once you’ve made some, in the meantime, leave “social enterprises” to charities and governments.

• Read everything you can about people who have started businesses from nothing – preferably biographies and autobiographies – everything you need to know is contained within those pages.

How Harnessing your Energy can Attract the Right Career.

Guest post by Edel O’Mahony, Director, Path of the Peaceful Warrior 

Having been through a 10 year career in corporate finance, I witnessed the quenching of peoples’ dynamic spark, saw the creative talent drain from them and witnessed their jobs becoming ‘sentences’. So why do people end up doing jobs that just become a struggle? 

Quite simply, they stop following their passion and live the belief that they are not worthy to live a happy life. It is in the focus of your desires that you ignite the dynamic spark; you begin your energetic communications and reconnect with your natural, powerful energy essence.

Let me explain some science here. 

• It has been scientifically proven that our cells take their signal not from our environment, as had been thought for hundreds of years; they take the signal instead from our beliefs. 

• These are transmitted through your nervous system (your electrical system)

• This then dictates the frequency at which your cells and organs resonate.

Why does it matter what frequency your cells resonate at? 

The key to attracting your desires in wealth, love, success and yes the right career, is that you are resonating this frequency already. 

You see, we live in an energetic Universe, where energy does not hear words, it feels vibration and your frequency resonates out as vibrational energy, therefore if you believe you are not worthy to be in a certain career, you will be attracting the same energy vibration back to you in experiences and opportunities that never bring that career any closer. This then compounds the belief you are not worthy for your chosen career and so a cycle ensues. 

Now, if you turn that around, focus on not only being in your chosen career but actually in the role that completely fulfils your passion. See and feel yourself loving every minute of it until you fully believe you are living your desires already; you have created a new signal for your cells to pick up and more importantly, to resonate out. As the Universal law states ‘what is like unto itself is drawn’ your frequency now attracts back the same frequency in experiences and opportunities and this is how you attract your ideal career. In fact it is the same strategy to attract all your desires.

I call this conscious creating, where you take back control of your life and create the life of your passion, through the power of your natural energy.